In recent years, new attitudes, new treatments and even mass marketing have more people seeking help for depression and other conditions. And in the coming years, more people are expected to have access to treatment.

All this week 89.7 NPR News has been looking at the changes in caring for the mentally ill. In recent years, new attitudes, new treatments and even mass marketing have more people seeking help for depression and other conditions.

In part three, WOSUâ€™ reports the coming years should see even more access to mental health services.

A group of women follow the lead of 46-year-old Traci Parks, who holds a unique certification. Sheâ€™s a certified laughter leader. Parks gives talks on how laughter is an integral to good health.

In this session, Parks has talked them into jumping around for an â€œants in your pantsâ€ laughter exercise. The women hop around, wiggling and giggling.

For Parks, laughter may not be the best medicine, but itâ€™s at least a medicine. Watching her, youâ€™d never suspect Parks has spent 20 years coping with severe depression.

Parkâ€™s has been hospitalized three times. Sheâ€™ll likely take medication for the rest of her life.

â€œMy brain chemistryâ€™s broken. I need a brain chemistry transplant, and they donâ€™t do those yet,” she joked.

It took years and countless doctors appointments for Parks to find the right combination of medications.

The system, said Parks, does not make it easy for the chronically depressed looking to find a psychiatrist.

â€œYou canâ€™t find one. And if you find one, they may not take your insurance. Or if youâ€™re not insured, itâ€™s $150 for one session,” she said. “And you arenâ€™t going to get meds in one session. Youâ€™re not going to figure out the core reason for your depression in one session. So people either canâ€™t afford it or theyâ€™re not available.â€

â€œWeâ€™re at a point right now where weâ€™re not even replenishing the supply of psychiatrists that are retiring. And there is an increasing need of psychiatrists due to increasing prevalence of mental illness,” Hurst said.

And with the expansion of health care under the Affordable Care Act, wait times to see a psychiatrist could grow.

So hereâ€™s whatâ€™s in store for the future: psychiatry and general medicine are expected to be more integrated.

Itâ€™s already happening. Traci Parks gets her medications from her primary care physician. A practice thatâ€™s becoming increasingly popular as primary care docs become more familiar with psychiatric drugs.

Dr. Hurst predicts as the federal health care law rolls out, general practitioners and psychiatrists will collaborate more, even share offices.

â€œIf I see my primary care doctor and he notes that I’m a little bit depressed, and says, â€˜gosh, what Iâ€™d really like for you to do is go down the hall and talk to my colleague in psychiatry hereâ€™, that decreases stigma; that improves access. It normalizes a mental health treatment approach.â€

Increased access to doctors is especially important for young people suffering from mental illness. Some medical professional hope greater access will prevent violence.

Ohio State University Harding Hospital executive director Amanda Lucas said young adults, 16 to 25-year-olds, are in what she calls a â€œtransition age.â€

â€œThatâ€™s also the time, if somebody is at risk, where they are most likely to have a first break psychotic episode,” Lucas said.

Lucas stresses most people with a mental health disorder do not become violent.

But high-profile cases, like the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting last July, highlight a need for mental health treatment. The shooter has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

But Lucas said with the new health care law more young people are able to stay on their parentâ€™s insurance and more importantly, stay on their medication.

â€œThat will sort of in a preventive mode allow us to continue treating that person.â€

Still, the experts agree the vast majority of people with mental illness get no help at all.

]]>http://wosu.org/2012/news/2013/06/19/experts-anticipate-mental-health-primary-care-integration/feed/1Amanda Lucas,Mark Hurst,mental health,mental health series,mental illness,Ohio Department of Mental Health,primary care,Traci ParksIn recent years, new attitudes, new treatments and even mass marketing have more people seeking help for depression and other conditions. And in the coming years, more people are expected to have access to treatment.In recent years, new attitudes, new treatments and even mass marketing have more people seeking help for depression and other conditions. And in the coming years, more people are expected to have access to treatment.WOSU Newsno4:02